RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – The Latest on the meeting of the members of North Carolina’s Electoral College (all times local):
12:50 p.m.
The 15 North Carolinians whose votes actually elect the next U.S. president followed script and cast their ballots for Republican Donald Trump.
The presidential electors meeting in Raleigh Monday all followed through on their pledge to cast their electoral votes for Trump. The vote is part of the formal process to choose the next president.
Last month’s statewide popular vote determined the electors nominated by the North Carolina Republican Party would cast the official ballots for the state. The electors were petitioned to follow their conscience and deny Trump the presidency by voting for someone else.
North Carolina elector David Speight of Lexington got about 500 letters and more emails urging him against casting his ballot for Trump but says the effort to influence electors was never going anywhere.
11:55 a.m.
About 100 people gathered outside North Carolina’s antebellum Capitol building are holding out hope that enough members of the Electoral College can be swayed to deny Donald Trump the presidency.
Protesters sang “We Shall Overcome” and listened to speakers in a cold rain Monday before the state’s 15 electors picked by the Republican Party cast ballots in Raleigh as designated by North Carolina’s popular vote last month.
Jennifer Griffith of Durham came to the demonstration because she believes Trump is a showman and con artist whose presidency will endanger the US. She says the Electoral College was established in the Constitution as an insurance policy against putting a dangerous dictator in the White House and hopes the electors will reflect on that now.
2:00 a.m.
The last acts in the presidential drama conducted in North Carolina for more than 200 years are about to take place.
Presidential electors will meet in Raleigh’s antebellum Capitol Building on Monday to pledge the state’s 15 electoral votes to Republican Donald Trump. It’s part of the formal process to choose the next president based upon state-by-state voting results.
Last month’s popular vote determined that electors nominated by the North Carolina Republican Party will cast the official ballots for the state. The electors hail from Hampstead in the east to Hickory in the west.
Some Democrats upset with the Nov. 8 results have urged electors in states not to cast their ballot for Trump.
